1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle control apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
There is known a technique in which a vehicle is maintained in an inertia running state by disengaging the clutch disposed between the engine and the transmission of the vehicle when the accelerator is off for the purpose of increasing fuel economy and soon. For example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2011-219087.
However, the above conventional technique has a problem in that a return from the inertia running state to a normal running state may be made unexpectedly to the vehicle driver. In this case the driver may feel something strange occur, or the effect of increase of fuel economy may not be obtained. For example, since the vehicle may be returned from the inertia running state to the normal running state if a power generation request occurs depending on the remaining capacity of a battery, there is a concern that unexpected vibration may occur due to switching of the clutch from the disengaged state to the engaged state. In addition, since the inertia running state is forcibly ended before the driver presses the accelerator in these case, the effect of increase of fuel economy may become insufficient.